ALABAMA SUPERCOMPUTER AUTHORITY
Come visit ASA (Booths 309-313) at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference (AETC), which will be held at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center on June 27-30, 2006. Members of our staff will be available to answer your questions about ASA services such as Internet Services, Network Connectivity, Quality of Service Transport, Email Hosting/Anti-Spam, Web Hosting, Network Management, Content Filtering, Consulting & Design, and Erate. AETC participants will also receive a free T-shirt for attending short demonstrations and presentations about some of the ASA Services.
READING ABOUT EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Learning.now is a weblog that explores how new technology and Internet culture affect how educators teach and children learn. It will offer a continuing look at how new technology impacts teachers' and students' lives both inside and out of the classroom. Be sure to check out the Learning.now topics—Blogging, Cool Tools, Digital Divide, Internet Safety, Policy, Research, Social Networking, and Websites. (PBS TeacherSource)
EDUCATION AND THE INTERNET
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) - An excellent resource for statistics, research, laws, regulations, and news on traffic and motor vehicle safety. Information available includes: State-by-State Profiles of Traffic Safety Data; Alcohol-Related Fatalities in 2004; and Analysis of Speeding-Related Fatal Traffic Crashes.
National Geographic - The National Geographic Society was created in 1888 for "the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge." This website is a tremendous resource for social studies. Teachers may find the Educators section of the website to be of particular interest. And, National Geographic Kids offers many resources that may appeal to parents and students.
BrainPOP is an educational program, providing content spanning six main subjects including: Science, Math, English, Social Studies, Health and Technology. While many of the resources require a subscription, there are several free resources for each subject area. And, recently, BrainPOP launched a Spanish-language site, BrainPOP Espanol.
NASA Kids Main Page provides a wealth of free resources that are safe, fun, and educational for your children. You can expect them to find reliable information on space-related topics, as well as games, Web quests, and even chats with NASA experts.
Don't Buy It - By dissecting pop culture and advertisements, media literacy education can help students build critical thinking and analytic skills, become more discriminating in the use of mass media, distinguish between reality and fantasy, and consider whether media values are their values. Activities are intended for children ages 9-11 and are designed to touch on the six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In addition, each lesson is aligned with the Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) Standards. Sections are also available for parents and for teachers. (PBS Kids)
American Memory Collections - This site contains over 7 million historical documents, photographs, maps, films, and audio recordings. Lesson plans, features, and activities are available for more than 100 American Memory collections. (Library of Congress)
NEWS YOU CAN USE
Digital Workshops - The U.S. Department of Education has brought together some of the nation's most effective teachers and practitioners to share the research-based practices and ways of using data they have used in their own schools to make a difference in student achievement. These "digital workshops" are excellent resources for professional development.
The Teacher-to-Teacher workshops empower teachers by showing real-world examples of how scientifically-based research is successfully translated into classroom practice and by providing effective ways of using data to inform instruction. The workshop presenters are exemplary practitioners who share the strategies they have used to close the achievement gap and help all children learn and progress. Teacher-to-Teacher workshops are cost free, provide quick and easy access to instructional materials, and can be used by individuals or groups. Each course is delivered in segments—usually about 15 minutes long—of video interspersed with reflective questions and small tasks that foster understanding. An entire program, including activities, is about two hours long.